ALWAYS IN SEASON
Jacqueline Olive interrogates the disturbing, lasting legacy of lynching in America.

Festival Section:
US Documentary Competition

Sundance Program Description:

Claudia Lacy wants answers. When her 17-year-old son, Lennon, was found hanging from a swing set in Bladenboro, North Carolina, the authorities quickly ruled his death a suicide. In light of suspicious details surrounding his death, and certain that her son would not take his own life, Claudia is convinced Lennon was lynched.

Jacqueline Olive’s unwavering debut film puts Lacy’s pursuit for justice into a wider historical context, inspiring a powerful discussion about lynching across racial lines. Appalling accounts of lynchings carried out at the beginning of the twentieth century provide a necessary historical framework, while an annual lynching reenactment in Monroe, Georgia, offers insight about the enduring legacy of racial violence in America. Olive’s layered exploration follows one African-American family’s personal experience with a justice system that has failed so many, while also hinting at the promising first steps of a nation trying to reconcile. Olive’s film honors and acknowledges the injustices that have been inflicted, while emphasizing that only through the uncomfortable conversations and acceptance of our nation’s history will we begin to heal together.

Some Background:Director/Producer:

Jacqueline Olive

This is Olive’s debut doc feature, which has received support from Sundance Institute’s Documentary Film Program, including the Documentary Edit and Story Lab and Music and Sound Design Lab.

Producer:

Multitude Films’ Jessica Devaney

This marks Devaney’s first film at Sundance, after debuting many of her previous docs at Tribeca, most recently THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED, ROLL RED ROLL, and CALL HER GANDA. Devaney is a past Women at Sundance fellow and Creative Producing Doc Lab creative advisor.

Co-Producers:

Multitude Films’ Lisa Valencia-Svensson and Anya Rous

This is also the first Sundance project for both Valencia-Svensson and Rous. Their previous work has explored inequality and social justice, with both involved with CALL HER GANDA. The former is an Emmy winner for HERMAN’S HOUSE, while the latter also co-produced THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED.

Associate Producers:

Multitude Films’ Colleen Cassingham

Cassingham also makes her Sundance debut, and previously associate produced THE FEELING OF BEING WATCHED.

Bennett has produced documentary content for public television, cable networks, and nonprofits, including PBS, HBO, and the National Civil Rights Museum, over the past twenty years.

Executive Producers:

Naked Edge Films’ Jim Butterworth and Daniel J Chalfen

The Peabody and duPont-winning and Emmy-nominated Naked Edge Films co-founders are also executive producers of fellow 2019 Sundance title THE INFILTRATORS, a hybrid in the NEXT section – their first projects at Sundance. Chalfen is a past Sundance Creative Producing Doc Lab creative advisor.

Philanthropist Quillin also executive produced fellow 2019 US Documentary Competition title MOONLIGHT SONATA: DEAFNESS IN THREE MOVEMENTS. She has been a past creative advisor to Sundance’s Catalyst Forum and also supported the 2018 fiction title NIGHT COMES ON and 2017 Sundance VR project THE SKY IS A GAP. Quillin’s husband is Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

The President/CEO and Executive Producer of ITVS have regularly provided funding and broadcast support for numerous past Sundance films. They also executive produced fellow 2019 US Documentary Competition titles BEDLAM andONE CHILD NATION. Fifer is also an executive producer of 2019 Documentary Premieres title WORDS FROM A BEAR.

Leslie Fields-Cruz

Fields-Cruz is the executive director of Black Public Media, where, among other achievements, she helped launch the signature public television series AfroPoP. This is her first Sundance credit.

The Artemis Rising Foundation founder and CEO is an Emmy-winning and Oscar-nominated social entrepreneur and philanthropist focused on transforming culture through media, education, and the arts. She also executive produced fellow 2019 US Documentary Competition title KNOCK DOWN THE HOUSE and World Cinema Documentary Competition title SHOOTING THE MAFIA.

The Oscar and Emmy-winning co-founder of both Impact Partners and Gamechanger Films also executive produced fellow 2019 Sundance title SHOOTING THE MAFIA in the World Cinema Documentary Competition and produced THE GREAT HACK in Documentary Premieres. She previously executive produced the 2018 VR experience THE SUN LADIES VR and has served as a creative advisor for Sundance’s Catalyst Forum.

McEvoy is the chairman and CEO of publishing giant the McEvoy Group, while his partner Berriman is executive editor at textbook publisher Pearson Education. Their philanthropic work encompasses the world of art, film, photography, and music, including the Smithsonian, SFMoMA, and SFJAZZ. They also executive produced 2019 Documentary Premieres title RAISE HELL: THE LIFE & TIMES OF MOLLY IVINS.

Bettner is a philanthropist, co-founder of gaming studio Playful, and co-founder with Amy Redford of media company BetRed Stories. She is also an executive producer of RAISE HELL: THE LIFE & TIMES OF MOLLY IVINS and THE INFILTRATORS. Bettner also is a member of the Women at Sundance leadership council.

Nancy Stephens and Rick Rosenthal
Past Sundance docs:

DARK MONEY
THE DEVIL WE KNOW
WON’T YOU BE MY NEIGHBOR?
BENDING THE ARC

The actress and film/TV director/producer-turned-philanthropists support arts, culture, health, and various progressive causes through the Rosenthal Family Foundation.

Why You Should Watch:
The tragic story of Lennon Lacy serves as a troubling present-day entry point to a far-ranging and imperative reckoning with the history and continued existence of systemic racism and violence in American society.